Red Tails is better than nothing - but "nothing" isn't the other option. That HBO film is still out there, and Red Tails doesn't add to it or improve upon it.
– Eric D. Snider,
Film.com,
21 Jan 2012
fresh:
One can get away with a lot of cornball speeches a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away but it doesn't work nearly as well a short time ago on planet Earth.
– James Berardinelli,
ReelViews,
21 Jan 2012
rotten:
This is so generic as storytelling that it fails even as a basic history lesson: it's hard to believe that the stock conflicts on-screen have any connection to real events.
– Ben Sachs,
Chicago Reader,
23 Jan 2012
rotten:
Sadly, Red Tails tells its inspiring story in the most old-fashioned, Saturday-afternoon-at-the-movies kind of way. The movie occasionally flies but it never soars.
– Leah Rozen,
TheWrap,
2 Mar 2012
rotten:
There's no sense of threat or danger: this is a film with its head stuck firmly in the clouds.